This page picks up on items that didn't merit a separate page of their own but that I didn't want to leave out.

This is the Brandenburg Gate, a very familiar symbol of Berlin. It lay practically on the border between the former eastern and western sectors but just inside the eastern sector. It is seen here from the western side looking towards the east. This was JFK's view when he visited and also that of Ronald Reagan. It was here that he made his famous speech asking Gorbachev to open the gate and tear down the wall.

I can't help wondering if it ever occurred to the Nazis to replace the cross under the bird with a swastika. It would certainly have occurred to me in their place.

This is the more conventional view of the Gate from Pariser Platz. As you can see, the sun was on the other side and I was faced with a slightly wishy washy photo or a silhouette. I've gone for the former as the inserts in the arch walls are quite interesting.

This one looks like a warrior guy trying to bludgeon a weird monster in defence of his missus.

The Reichstag was originally the parliament of the Prussian Empire and of the Weimar Republic. After the fire in 1933 it ceased to be used by the Third Reich and has only come back into its own as a parliament building since the German authorities moved the capital from Bonn to Berlin and the Bundestag occupied a restored Reichstag from April 1999.

What you see here is the back of the building. I have to confess I thought it was the front or I'd have gone round the block for a proper photo.

This is a close parallel to Dublin's Spire. It is the Communications Tower built by the East German régime in the 1960s. One of its objectives was to boost East German morale by constructing the highest building in Germany. However, unlike Dublin's Spire, East Berlin did have a need for a communications tower.

The illustration above is one preserved in the Stasi museum.

You can see the damn thing from almost everywhere in Berlin. Today it relays a vast range of state and commercial communications including both radio and television. You may notice the way the sunlight forms a cross on the sphere. This was referred to in the West as the "Pope's Revenge" on this atheistic East German régime.

Again we can't leave Dublin out of the picture. This is Molecule Man in the River Spree. There are similar structures in other places, including in the USA. Dublin was due to get a structure like this at the mouth of the Liffey, but hopefully that has been put to bed.

There is still a lot of demolition going on in the former East Berlin. Old apartment blocks are being replaced by newer ones or by offices. You used to be able to tell whether you were in East or West Berlin by the type and quality of the buildings but this is no longer the case after an orgy of post reunification reconstruction in the former eastern sector.

The building in the photo above is just around the corner from the former Stasi HQ (now a museum).

There are also listed buildings around the place which cannot be demolished and are therefore up for serious refurbishment. One such is the old post office, just beside the earlier building above, equally close to Stasi HQ and once used as a "listening post" by the Stasi.

For more information on it click here, and if you have the time and motivation, you can check out Dolphin Capital GMBH here.

If I was disgusted by the prevalence of wanton graffiti, I was very taken with the ubiquitous children's playgrounds. Nobody seemed to live too far from one and it was all very encouraging.

I have dealt separately with the Jewish museum which is a must see. The above is a memorial to those Jews who lost their lives in the Holocaust. It is not supposed to represent anything in particular but has been likened to a cemetery. It was controversial on two scores. The company producing the anti-graffiti substance was linked to the suppliers of Zyklon B to the Nazis and other minorities who had suffered, such as Roma and homosexuals, were not included. The first problem was simply ignored, as being too costly to do anything about, and the second was solved by these other groups subsequently having their own memorials.

Note the balloon in the background. This is a massive thing with a viewing platform and it is winched up and down many times a day.

You can see reference to the separate memorials in the direction sign above which also reminds us that there is still a lot more to see in Berlin.